


Sins of the Hunters

by GalaxiaBlaze



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Might get a bit bloody as the story progresses, More than your typical Mega Man scenario, Original Maverick Characters, Post-Rockman X8 | Mega Man X8, Under a different title, but nothing too major
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-06-07 11:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15217871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxiaBlaze/pseuds/GalaxiaBlaze
Summary: After Lumine's fall, the world of human and Reploid has come to a seemingly perfect peace, a peace that X and friends almost can't believe when all the fighting was said and done. But with any peace comes the notion of chaos, and X knew that. He knew better than anyone what to expect. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, an endless waltz of war and calm.Even when the heavens came down to reap them of their sins.





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: It's been a while since I wrote a fanfic here, and this is my first Megaman X fanfic. After a recent spurt of inspiration whilst listening to the Intense Symphonic Metal Cover of X v. Zero and going through entire walkthroughs of the X series, this came to be.  
> The same work can be found through this link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12930009/1/Megaman-X-Divided-Unity
> 
> I changed several elements of the story, as I felt it had been inferior than my original intentions.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC Mavericks and any other original characters. Everything else belongs to Capcom.

 

In the shadows of ruins long forgotten by both Reploid and human alike, a miracle had been created. Six miracles to be exact. But these miracles were unholy. Unclean. So dastardly were these creations that even their creator couldn't believe it.

But here they were. After decades of deciphering the blueprints, and cracking the code behind what made them tick, he did it. He raised his old arms in unadulterated joy, greying eyes practically lighting up the room with an elation even the blackest of hearts could love.

"I have done it," cried the man's voice, wheezing harshly as he did. He touched the side of a pod that contained one of six of these specimens. "I, Doctor Geist, have done it. My life's work. All… finished… ack! Ack!"

His life's work… finished. He could technically rest knowing he did what his father could not. The man was too much of a coward after all. Said that the blueprints could never be shown to the world. Hmph. What did that man know? He knew nothing. He could finally enact his plan on the world. Slowly but surely they would.

"They will…. They will succeed in my place… the Angels…" Doctor Geist hacked again, holding onto the pod. Inside the glowing green container in a pool of liquid, the specimen looked down at him, beady red eyes staring down at him.

"You know what you must do…" he told the specimen. "Although you should already know. It is in your programming after all. Become one with humans… show them light… purge the evil within… make them repent…"

_Repent…._

The specimen rumbled in its pod, bubbles surging upward from its murmurings. Dr. Geist beamed. "A response! A meager one, but it is a response- ack!" Dr. Geist hacked, this time blood staining his hand. "Curse this age of mine…"

He peered back up at his work, a wicked look on his face. "Undone by metal, born of the metal, given life by the metal… and yet so organic… welcome to the world."

* * *

 

 

**Several Months Later, 21XX...**

"X, c'mon, we'll be fine here! It's just a scouting mission!"

It was easy for Axl to say when the kid, as skilled as he was in combat, was only a year old hunter for the Maverick Hunters. Sure, he had his time with Red, but he didn't nearly have the experience X had out in the field. Time and again had X been through situations where it was just "a simple scouting mission" and it turns into a mission of survival. War taught a lot of things. Knowing that change can happen in a nanosecond was the difference between living and being blown to shreds by a Maverick.

"That doesn't mean you should be slacking, Axl," came Zero's response this time, slashing at a large clump of mechanical foliage with the Z-Saber. "Anything can happen, even as simple as scouting. Always be on guard."

Axl rolled his eyes, but he knew that Zero was right. What had him rather concerned was the grave look on X's face, as if what they were about to explore was something extremely evil. It was all just jungle and the occasional pitfall or two that led to a drop of spikes, but other than that there was nothing special regarding this place. Nothing on his scanners indicated anything out of the ordinary.

Until the plants that carpeted his feet suddenly became stone flooring. He focused his attention now to see, in the deepest part of the jungle, ruins of a forgotten building seemingly lost to time.

“Whoa…” Axl said, leaning his head back to take in the full enormity of the ruins. “This is the place Alia was talking about?”

“Yeah.” X was still iffy about the place. And now that they were actually close to it, the feeling only grew stronger. “This place is said to be where Dr. Geist was last seen after he went rogue.”

Doctor Geist. A mystery nowadays, said to have died during the events of Lumine’s determined takeover of the planet, but known for being a mirror image of his late father before him. But even that was a bit of a stretch. His father, Doctor Geist Senior, was known for some of his work, radical in more than one way. Much of it had been rough drafts of potential Reploid designs for the future. Their programming, freer than ever before, claiming it would not be possible for the Maverick Virus to inhabit their systems. But like many rough drafts, they were often panned and dismissed as fiction by critics. Some even saw them as a danger for Reploids being as free-minded. So, he would delete them from his files, and start anew. Doctor Geist's father only sought for perfection, to better the world he lived. And when he had died, Geist Jr. took up the mantle in his place.

Then, years later, the Lumine incident happened. Reploids were going Maverick out of their own accord. People began to pin the blame on him. It was reasonable, after all. Geist Senior wanted to initially make Reploids to have more free will. His son, wanting more of his work than having lie in the garbage, wished to revive it, make them into something more. So, in order to protect himself, he had fled. Where to, no one knew.

At least until today.

“But… Geist… he was practically an old man when he went rogue,” Axl said, carefully approaching the building, a finger inching closely towards the holster that held his gun. The typical sounds of the jungle were absent here, an unnerving silence filling his audio receptors. “He should’ve probably kicked the bucket by now, right?”

“Keyword: _should,_ ” Zero emphasized. He seemed to be equally on edge, (from what Axl could gather through the furrowing of his brow and the tightened hold of his saber) but kept it hidden under a mask of cool. 

“Be careful, you three,” came Alia’s voice through their communicators. “I detect several strong energy signatures from within the ruins.”

X’s emerald eyes narrowed, flexing his fingers. Energy sigs usually meant either Reploid or some sort of large weapon. In case of the former, which it almost always was, it was more than likely an enemy. “Are any of them Maverick?” he asked.

“From this position, I can’t tell,” Alia replied, “but they do seem to be… dormant. They almost match the patterns of a Reploid in stasis.”

“Stasis?” Axl repeated, looking inside the ruins’ yawning entrance. “How could anyone still be able to survive in stasis in a run-down place like this?”

“If this is really Geist’s last hideout, then I’d say he’d probably figured it out on his own,” X said, configuring his optics to adjust to the darkness of the interior. The sound of dripping water falling from the ceiling was the only thing that greeted them. “Anything else here, Alia?"

“Just the energy sigs,” she said. “But… I should caution you. A man like Geist wouldn’t want to be disturbed, especially given his background.”

The potential of traps. Of course. “Got it.” X signed out, then put his attention to the task at hand. As they moved further inside, the light of the outside disappearing for darkness to enclose them, rusted wires thicker than steel girders snaked their way in the walls and connected at the ceiling. Someone had definitely taken up residence here, which didn’t put X’s already ill-apprehensive mind at ease.

“Whoa… this is serious stuff,” Axl said with wonder, almost tripping over a wire that crawled through the floor. “Gotta wonder what’s here that would need this much equipment…” It was practically overkill with how many wires and cables there were: on the ceiling, through the walls, a few in the crevices of the broken floor. Some were even suspended in the air.

“Apparently enough to make six of whatever Alia found,” Zero surmised, being a little more careful of where his feet were. “X, anything on your end?”   
  
“Nothing I can detect,” the blue Reploid responded with a shake of his head. He pushed an obtrusive cable out of the way, and was surprised to feel power thrumming from it. This place, in shambles as it was, still operated, and quite effectively from what he felt.

“There’s power surging through the cables,” X stated after he placed the cable down. “We have to be close to one of those energy sigs.”

“But there’s tons of cables,” Axl pointed out, shivering at a sudden chill in his system. The air here had gotten mildly chillier than that of the outside despite mold and mildew taking hold of the walls. “We don’t even know where they lead to, much less if they lead to any of those sigs.”

“I think I might have found a clue,” Zero said, pointing to a doorway ahead.  A swath of cables littered the bottom of the entrance, some going across in a sort of a blockade manner. Whoever or whatever was behind that door clearly was not meant to be discovered by mere strangers. 

However, the S-Class Maverick Hunters were no mere strangers, and the door proved no match for Zero's saber, the cables hissing as they were cut. The door soon creaked open, and warm, almost sea green light poured out. X covered his eyes from the sudden surge of brightness, but once his eyes got adjusted, he gasped at the contents inside.

Fixed in the center of the room, encapsulated in a container of green fluid, was an unknown Reploid. 

And under it were the words, "Project: Angel."


	2. Awakening

Green.

It was one of the last moments Frost Sabertooth could recall before being put into stasis. Green had filled her vision, a green brighter than anything she had known, then a coveting darkness. She remembered a voice speaking to her, a voice that spoke of angels. It was always angels. What was so special about that word, she didn’t know, but the voice made it clear it was special.

The Voice always spoke to her of many interesting things, things she still didn’t comprehend nor understand. How humans needed to be purified. How he wished for no more sin.

There was another word, a word the Voice put a lot of emphasis on. If only her sparse memories could bring it up, if only she could remember--

“Repent...”

There it was! That was the word! But… it was a different voice who said it now. In fact, there were multiple voices outside. Had someone come to bring her out? She tried to open an eye, see who it might have been, to no avail. Most of her advanced functions and capabilities had ceased until she was fully activated, there were some she could still use. Her audio receptors were still online, and she could still commune via limited internal and external frequency.

 _“H-hello?”_ Saber ‘spoke’, trying to find which frequency to do a private connection with. There were three to choose, yet were so protected she couldn’t get to it in her state. So Saber opted for an all-call, where everyone could hear. **_“H-hello? Hello? It’s me. In here.”_ **

Silence. Then, to her joy, a voice.

\---

X was the first one to hear it.

He was just reading one of the notes they had found when a warning flashed across his processor. It was a random frequency, something that caught him off guard, trying to contact him through his private network. Being who he was, it was nothing to block it, but it was still startling. Weapon raised, he told the others, “Be alert. Some unknown frequency just tried to get into my comms.”

“Same here,” Zero replied, weapon drawn, body ready to spring. Axl nodded too, guns loaded.

This was no coincidence. A frequency trying to reach all of them at once? This had to be some sort of trap. It could be a virus or--

**_“H-hello? Hello? It’s me. In here.”_ **

It was the frequency again, this time on all call, an external frequency typically used to address a large group of people. As such, this voice came off as _very_ loud, and the trio had to lower their audial volumes so their sound wouldn’t get blasted. 

“Who are you?” X questioned, still tense, audials still somewhat disoriented from the sound. 

 ** _“Me… I’m here… In here…”_** said the voice, undeniable joy, almost relief, in her tone. **_“In here… with you... “_**

“With us?” Axl instinctively looked about his surroundings once more, seeing no one else but the three of them and the specimen, who was in stasis lock. “But we’re the only ones.” 

“Not quite.” Zero turned to the tank, eyes furrowed. “Are you talking to us in there?” he asked the contained bot. 

X blinked in surprise. “Zero, that Reploid’s in stasis-” he began, but was cut off by a cheer of gratitude. He realized it _had_ been coming from the Reploid _,_ a Reploid that shouldn’t have been able to speak, let alone communicate through frequency due to being stasis locked. 

And they still didn’t know what it was programmed for. Coming from Geist, it was more than likely a Maverick… but the way it was acting suggested otherwise.. _._

 **_“Well, who are you?”_ ** she asked of them, curious to know of these strangers. **_“You… sound… like me…”_ **

“That’s what we want to know,” Axl replied with a raised brow, unsure what to make of this Reploid. “And could you stop yelling? It’s kinda hurting our ears…”

 **_“O-oh… s-sorry. I don’t… I don’t… I can’t…”_ ** she responded sheepishly, sounding genuinely apologetic for the headaches she caused. **_“My primary functions are locked.”_ **

She grew quiet, then said, **_“I am… Sabertooth. Frost Sabertooth, according to my main file. Nice… to meet you… whoever you are…”_ **

Frost Sabertooth. What an odd Reploid she was, X thought. Definitely didn’t sound like any Maverick to him, but he didn’t want to take any risks. The nicest looking Reploid was typically the one with the darkest intentions.

 **_“So… are you here… to free me?”_ ** Saber asked. **_“It’s been so long… since… someone talked to me…”_ **

“X, Zero, Axl, do you copy?” came Alia’s voice through the comms before any of them could respond.

“Alia? What’s up?” Axl said, noting the urgent tone in her voice. A worried Alia meant trouble followed shortly after.

“There’s another energy source above you that’s beginning to move in your location,” she explained. “It’s a strong one too, stronger than the one you’re with.”

And at that moment, a screech rattled the facility. Saber gave a noise that sounded remotely concerning. **_“Is that… a friend…?”_** she asked tentatively.  

“Of yours? Maybe,” Zero answered, activating the Z-Saber as the screeching got louder. “Of ours? Not a chance.”

The Maverick Hunters stood their ground as the menace approached. The screeching came to a high pitch, right outside the door. X chose this moment to start charging his buster, eyes narrowed and scanners ready to lock on. Even Axl got into a more serious combat stance, cocking his guns. As much of a kid he may have acted, he knew when he needed to get serious.

 The noise stopped. A tense quiet settled in the air, the faint hum of Saber’s pod and the thrumming ring of the X-Buster the only indication of anyone there. 

It was then broken when Zero’s sensors went off, and he turned on his heel in a split second to find the enemy about to crunch down on his arm. In that same second he back-stepped and horizontally slashed, only for the enemy to dodge in a flash. It reappeared in front of X, but he blue Reploid was ready, firing off the Charge Shot.

The enemy screeched, slamming into the furthermost wall and leaving a visible dent. In the lighting of the room, the figure appeared to be none other than another Reploid, a black bat bot. The bat hissed as it stood, synthetic blood flowing from its head. The fact it survived the initial blast was incredible.   
  
And then, as it struggled to stand, it spoke.    


“Intruders… begone from here…” it turned to he when his voice oscillated  wildly. “Intruders… begone… away from the Angel...”

He lunged, tackling an unaware Axl, almost crashing into Saber’s pod, the young Hunter holding back the bat’s jaws with one hand and aiming to shoot with the other. “Yikes! Get him off, get him off!” he yelped, wincing as the bat managed to successfully nail a bite to his shoulder.    
  
Zero was on it, zooming over and stabbing the bat’s wing, earning him another screech of pain as he reared up and fell unceremoniously on his back. Instant defeat. 

Axl heaved a sigh of relief, pushing the Maverick off of him, nursing his now bleeding shoulder as synth-fluid pooled around the floor and the pod itself. “Phew…” the new gen panted, getting up with X’s help. “Man, that was one weird nut. Just what was that thing?”   
  
“Probably some guard of Geist’s that snuffed out anyone that entered here,” X hypothesized, giving the younger bot an E-Tank to heal that wound. “It’s rather strange they start attacking after we’ve invaded. Maybe they’re just as inactive as the rest of this base…”   
  
“If that’s the case, then Geist is a bit understaffed,” Zero said, removing the saber from the offensive creature and sheathing it. “I was expecting more of a resistance.”   
  
**_“U-um… are you… are you guys okay?”_ ** Saber asked the trio, and the Maverick Hunters turned, almost forgetting that she was still in the room.  **_“I mean… I assume so, you kinda stopped-”_ **

She stopped herself, her voice… stuttering, all but a second.  **_“What… what is that? Blood…?”_ ** she stammered, her pod beginning to glow darkly. Her voice had become quiet, terrified.  **_“Who’s… why…”_ **

“Huh?” X looked to the puddle of blood that leaked from Axl, flowing to the pod. His eyes followed it up, and saw, to his horror, it was flowing  _ into the pod itself.  _ Thin, red vein like wires never before seen until now pulsed with power inside of it. The connectors that tethered Saber had released themselves with a pop, leaving her suspended in the fluid.    
  
“Oh, crap.” Axl backed up, holding his still injured shoulder (the E-Tank hadn’t been enough to completely heal the wound, just stop the bleeding). He looked disturbed about this Reploid just… taking in his life force. “Is that… is she… absorbing my…?”

**_“H-help… this… blood… blood… awakening… programming reboot…”_ ** Saber said, vocalizers steadily garbling out into nothing. 

Zero grunted, pulling out his sword and slashed at the containment unit to try and stop it, but received a strong shock for his efforts, falling into a heap onto the floor. Static flickered across his body. “Gah… I can’t… move…” 

“Zero!” X yelled, moving to his aid, shielding his eyes as the pod glowed even further. 

Then, the place filled with a bright light and at the same time darkness.


	3. The Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the wait you all.
> 
> Upon writing this chapter and this story, I had been hoping for something much bigger and of much better quality. But with college in play, I find forcing myself to write makes for a much lower quality than I had hoped for. Even though it has a much slower pacing than its FFN counterpart, I still find myself not being able to finish. I fear I might have to put this on hold.
> 
> I'll still be working Vision's Cooking Show, if anyone's following that, but this work will be definitely be on hiatus as far as I'm concerned.

When X felt his systems come online again, his optics switching from a faded green to a solid emerald, he knew that he wasn’t at the lab. Rather… he was in a pod. A recharge pod in a rather bright room that hurt his still sensitive eyes. His systems all checked out green, with his processors informing him of recent reparations of his armor while he was out. Which meant...

 

He was back at base!

 

“X, you’re awake!” came a familiar voice, and he turned his gaze to see black armor and orange hair. It was Axl of all people, with a repaired shoulder and his peppy attitude as usual. Zero was nowhere to be found in the room, which had X immediately concerned. “Was a little worried you bit the dust back there.”

 

“What… what’s happened, Axl?” X asked the younger hunter, sitting up in his pod and disconnecting. He now noticed he was in the hospital ward, somewhere in a private sector.

 

Axl’s grin fell. “Well, after that light knocked us out… we got rescued by some folks at HQ,” he explained. “Alia realized our signals had went down and sent over some people to get us… but not before half the rescue squad was reported to be ripped to shreds. The rest that didn’t get messed up managed to survive and bring us back.”

 

“What?” X nearly exclaimed, all signs of his previous exhaustion gone, replaced with sharp attention. “Mavericks got to them?”

 

“I assume so… it might have been those energy sigs we found earlier, although I wasn’t briefed on that much after I woke up.” Axl sighed, but a smile gentled on his face. “I’m just glad everyone’s okay.”

 

“As am I,” came a new voice now, and the two hunters turned to see Zero step in, perfectly healthy and in no worse for wear, although his walk was stiff. “Good to see you back up, X.”

 

“I was just wondering about you, Zero,” X said, a tiny smile gracing his features as he bumped fists with Zero. “Are you okay? Sure  you should be walking after taking a shock like that?”

 

“You know me, X. I’ll be fine-ggrk!” Zero grunted, a rogue shock going through his circuits.   
  
“You call that, ‘fine’?” Axl asked with a raised eyebrow, a wry smirk on his face. He flinched when the red hunter punched his shoulder (luckily not the recently repaired one).    
  
“Shut it, kid,” Zero scolded, straightening himself and shrugging off the pain. “Anyway, Signas wanted to see us after we were up and running again for a  debrief.”

 

“Alright.” X stood from his pod, though his eyes never left Zero’s. He’d talk to him about his injuries later. “Let’s go.”

 

\---

 

“...so that’s where everything stands.”

 

Signas, of course, was leading the proceedings in the debrief. His face was awfully grim, more so than it usually was. “Geist has it in for us if he’s making weapons with the potential to take out our top units. The reports of the Mavericks in the ruins showed they were still in full operation despite being inactive for several years.”   
  
“What was your first clue?” Axl said, rotating his injured shoulder back in place. “That… whatever it was, attacks us like it was some sort of undead Maverick… like it had nothing to lose.”

 

“That’s the point I’ve been trying to make, Axl,” Signas said with a mild glare to the young hunter. “They should’ve been deactivated after that point. There was no visible recharger or anything indicated they should have energy stored within. At any rate, no one, barring few, could survive on low reserves, much less, in the case of the specimen you’ve encountered, communicate with the outside world. Yet, those guards and the specimen we obtained still survived.”   
  
“What has me worried is the fact that there are still five more of those energy sigs we haven’t gotten to yet,” X stated, inwardly shivering at the memory of Frost Sabertooth’s pod absorbing the blood. “Those things could be turned loose if what we’ve seen of those guards holds true with them.”

 

“That’s the thing, X,” Signas answered him with an even more worrying tone. “The energy signatures that you’ve picked up beforehand had mysteriously disappeared. We can’t trace them anymore.”   
  


Zero raised a brow. “Can’t trace them? Is something blocking your trackers?” 

 

“I’m certain. I’m sure Geist had something to do with… whatever those signatures are.” Signas went quiet as he deliberated his next words. “But I believe we’ll have a better understanding of what they might be… once we investigate that Reploid you three saw. From reports of the techs looking into it, its come out of stasis lock… yet, its vitals still read like a Reploid in suspended animation.”

 

“Is it something… to do with it sapping my…?” Axl questioned nervously, unconsciously feeling his injured shoulder. 

 

“It could be a possibility, but as of now that’s uncertain-” Signas began, but was interrupted when his comms went off. “Yes?”

 

Some hurried speech came from him on the other end of the line, and Signas’ optics widened slightly. “Alright. I’ll send them.”

 

He clicked off the comms, turning to the three Hunters. X was the first to ask, “Is it about..?”

 

“Yes,” Signas finished for him. “They need you down there just as an extra precaution, now that it’s fully awakened. We don’t know what this thing holds in terms of power. Containment is  priority number one.”   
  


 

X nodded, but he instinctively prepared himself for potential battle. He wasn’t sure of Frost and her capabilities… considering they only saw her for only a couple of moments before everything went to chaos. 

 

Perhaps this would reveal to them of her true nature… and maybe uncover more of what Geist was up to…

 

\---

 

“....”   
  


“....”

 

“................”

 

“...Hmm?”   
  
Frost Sabertooth opened her eyes for the first time since her conception. The first thing she noticed was how painfully  _ colorful  _ everything was. She only knew greens and the occasional black of her unconsciousness… but now there were colors that her systems were scrambling to comprehend on the fly after being inactive for so long. 

 

The second she noticed was she wasn’t alone. Voices of all sorts bombarded her audials, none of which she recognized as the Voice, or as any of the three people that came visit her beforehand. They all seemed to be edging closer to her tank, and she could see muddled reflections within-   
  
She blinked away the muddiness, the images clearing. They were… like her. Only… different. Many of them looked similar to each other. And in the tank, her reflection stared back at her with confused, iridescent gold eyes, and she jumped, back hitting the wall of the container. It was the first time she had ever seen herself: a flowing white blond mane ran down her snowy colored mainframe, while claws of ebony adorned her hands and feet and huge orange tusks covered her snout. 

 

This was… her.

 

She then remembered the people were still there, so she tried to speak to them. “Hello?” she called out, finding to her relief her vocalizers were online now, and she didn’t have to yell. “Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?”

 

The talking outside stopped, and they turned their focus to look at her. From the looks on their faces, she could only assume that they were just as shocked as she was…

 

“U-um… I can assume you heard me,” she continued hesitantly, trying to move but found she couldn’t - her body had been tethered to cables inside the capsule, much like last time. “I’m just… just wondering where… am I? And who are you?”   
  
There then arose a clamor of hushed and hurried voices then. Saber blinked. “Am I… did I say something wrong? Did you understand?”

 

She saw three flashes of color warp in then - red, blue, and black - and they stopped to talk to the others in the room. She didn’t recognize them either… but their voices…

 

“It’s them! It’s you three!” she exclaimed. “You’re back!”

  
  



End file.
